Memories In Virginia Woolf's Memoirs '

In psychology, memories have three stages in which the brain can retain and recall past experiences and information; encoding, storage, and retrieval. Most memories from someone’s childhood are lost due to absentmindedness but in her memoirs, Virginia Woolf dwells upon treasured thoughts of a fishing trip in the company of her dad and brother. This remembrance does not transient or linger in the back of her mind, no. She vividly contemplates, remembering every word and detail of past events. Woolf conveys the lasting significance of these moments from her apprehension to show her memories are close at hand.
Woolf utilizes simile and existentialism tone to describe the many aspects of the event of her fishing trip. She uses similes to
depict the jellyfish seen in the harbor to recreate the scene vividly. Noting a childlike character, she establishes her experience as enlightening, illustrating, "The sea was full of pale jellyfish, like lamps, with streaming hair” in which Woolf clearly remembers years later. Additionally, as Woolf relives a memorable day, she uses existential tone which emphasizes her feelings. This emphasis is seen when a change in the tone conveys Woolf’s metamorphosis from the lasting significance of her past. Using words with a positive connotation such as "passion" and "excitement" about her involvement with her father is slowly smothered as Woolf’s "acute" passion for fishing develops into a distant memory. The tone of the excerpt drops significantly as although Woolf had been taught the "perfect lesson," she could not help but imagine fishing, seeing it only with "momentary glimpses" as nostalgia overtook her. Depicting her trip using simile and tone shows Woolf’s admiration for her memories. Having the time of her life on a fishing trip with her father and brother, the second paragraph is devoted to the "perfect lesson" that she learned, which led to her metamorphosis with the use of metaphoric language as Woolf’s father reveals he no longer wishes to indulge in fishing; encompassing the main idea of the piece. As the "invaluable seeds" is set as the main metaphor of the piece, “Often one has to make do with seeds" highlights the character of an adult who basically gives up on a certain idea in their life to follow another. These seeds represent the growth of the passion Woolf had for fishing, but because of her dad's comments, Woolf's passion extinguished. Describing the growth of the seeds as representing others' experiences, the nurturing given to a plant is based on the gardener's desire. For Woolf, her dad represented that gardener. Woolf’s metaphors in the second paragraph mark a lasting significance from her memories.
Having a lasting significance from her fishing trip with her father and brother, Woolf conveys that her apprehensions are precious to her. The ability to look at an item, and remember what it looked like with just a second of observation, or memorization is one thing but Woolf did not just remember a simple fishing trip, no. Even though her experience of fishing was taken away from her, the memories Woolf holds on to remain with her.